Xenonauts

Xenonauts is a spiritual successor to UFO: Enemy Unknown, which means that it’s also a spiritual successor to many of the most tense and glorious hours of my teenage years. Following a successful Kickstarter and a period in Early Access, the game has been available for almost a month now. With its loyal approach to the original design, Xenonauts doesn’t step on XCOM’s toes, but…

Obviously we don't do video on RPS, because we are Old MenTM. Only now I've done a video, for some reason. It's in the vein of those Let's Play things that are all over YouTube, tt's my first one ever, and I'm well aware it's pretty shonky on both a content and technical level. I wanted to give this a shot regardless of outcome, to…

This makes sense as a thing to do. With so many gaming Kickstarters running, for games we're genuinely interested to play, let's have a look to see where they all are this weekend. The headline news is that Grim Dawn has finished its run, with just shy of double its target reached. Below you can catch up on Moebius, Xenonauts, Tex Murphy, and many more.…

I know exactly what I'm doing. Including when I screw up. When I screw up in X-COM, I invariably know that I've screwed up long before the results of said screwing-up actually come to pass. My soldier is out of action points and left standing in the open while an alien silently eyeballs him, or a yet-to-explode grenade lands casually at the feet of an…

As promised yesterday, here's another chat with XCOM: Enemy Unknown lead dev Jake Solomon. Here it is - and it brings with it particularly glad tidings if, like me, you weren't 100% convinced the slo-motion 'glamcam' killshots and 80s action movie soldier vocals were for you. Turns out we will indeed be able to turn them off in favour of quieter, interruption-free strategising. I'll probably…

It's probably horribly sensationalist to suggest there's a cold war on between Firaxis' XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Goldhawk Interactive's more mechanically purist X-COMlike Xenonauts, but then again it is the battle to end all battles, one shall stand and one shall fall and the Earth itself will be left in smoking ruins by the time this apocalyptic conflict is over. Xenonauts has been smartening itself…

Up until January 5, 2012, the mega-ambitious Xenonauts, Goldhawk Interactive's Cold War-set tale of alien invasion, was our number one hope for a modernised X-COM. Then, on January 5, 2012, 2K and Firaxis announced they were making an official modernised X-COM. We've already chatted to Firaxis about XCOM: Enemy Unknown at length, but what did that shock news mean to Goldhawk lead Chris England? Here,…

Night will always follow day, controversy will always follow a highly-anticipated game scoring less than 9/10 on a mainstream videogaming website, and X-COM will always see remakes. Xenonauts is the one to watch at present, of course, but Xenowar caught my attention because it's going for a hyper-stripped down, simplistic, scrappy mini-take on the oft-aped formula.

Poor old Xenonauts, Goldhawk Interactive's Cold War-set XCOMalike, was the most recent victim of Paypal's callous punishing of indies who fund development by selling early builds of their games as part of pre-orders - and as a result it hasn't been available for sale for quite some time. Well, a month on, the impressive turn-based tactical strategy game is back, thanks to Desura. You can…

Oh, not again. Paypal is increasingly the scourge of indie games - it's opted to cruelly and unnecessarily freeze funds for Minecraft and Project Zomboid in the past, and the latest victim of its administrative idiocy is enticing X-COM reimagining Xenonauts. "Currently our Paypal account has been locked down and closed, so we don't have access to any of the new money coming in or…

OK, I admit it: I am as cynical as you when it comes to half-suspecting that enormously ambitious, fanbase-courting independent projects announced before work on them has even begun carry the dread stench of vapourware. I've been very interested in Xenonauts for some time, if faintly horrified that lead designer Chris England claims he made the final decision to pour his life savings into funding…

It's been a bit all-quiet for the Cold War-set X-COM reimagining Xenonauts for the last few months, but creators Goldhawk have finally broken cover to show how the major element - the ground combat - looks in action. The answer, you may not be terribly surprised to hear is "quite a bit like X-COM", but clearly that's exactly what we want. Higher res and detail…

Amidst the web-wide frenzy resulting from the announcement of 2K Marin's shooter-sequel to X-COM, those who were unwaveringly disappointed/infuriated that the series' strategy roots had been abandoned had at least one source of turn-based solace. That was Goldhawk Interactive's Xenonauts, one of more X-COM remake projects than any sane man could count - but this time determined to retain the original game's key systems and…

The enduring question around 2K Australia's upcoming XCOM FPS has been "why not just come up with a new IP?" Well, that three posts about X-COM each clocked up triple-figures of comments on Wednesday is the answer to that. A secondary question is "why is everyone so upset that it's using the X-COM IP?" The IP is not what's important about X-COM. In terms of…